hey guys, wow. thanks for the great replies.
i'm already armed with 2 tins of Rustin's marine varnish which should
do the job nicely. i got some wood preservative as well which i
intend to put on before, apparently it's good for preventing wood worm
and fungi etc., i'd be impressed if a worm could get through 3 coats
of the varnish but i'm going to do it anyway, i want the bench to last
forever so putting in an extra hour or 2 is well worth it.
i will be burying the screws about 5mm below the surface with wood
filler to keep them out of sight on my lovely boards. and i think
i'll go for the 5mm gap, that seems to be the general consensus. 2
screws sounds like a good idea, thanks for the tip Ricod. we get so
few sunny days here that i like to make the most of it when i can!
hopefully i won't get any ASBOs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-so...ehaviour_order

cheers
tim